AIDWA Condemns HC Judgement in Suryanelli rape case

THE All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) has denounced the flawed reasoning of the Kerala High Court's division bench in its objectionable judgement regarding a rape case. Through this judgement, the court has freed all but one of the 35 men accused in the Suryanelli gang rape case in which all the 35 accused raped a 16 years old girl for over a period of 42 days in different parts of Kerala.

All these men, including a district office bearer of the Congress party, had been convicted by the special court to rigorous imprisonment for varying terms.

The AIDWA statement on the issue was issued from New Delhi, January 21, by the AIDWA president Subhashini Ali and vice president Brinda Karat.

The statement said the High Court judgement has put forward the highly specious and objectionable reasoning that had she wanted to, the 16 years old victim had had ample opportunity to escape from the clutches of her abductors. If the victim did not run away, to the court this implied her consent.

The statement asked: "Is the judiciary so insensitive and blinkered that it is unable to appreciate the desperate trauma of the girl, the blackmail that she was subjected to and the state of terror that this young girl would have been in at that time? To believe that a 16 years old child would "consent" to have sexual intercourse with over 35 men is the greatest perversion of logic." The statement said the Kerala High Court's judgement was almost like the Mathura case in which it was argued that since the young woman victim did not have marks on her body reflecting her physical opposition to the rape, this meant that she had consented. The rape laws defining consent were framed only after a national outcry against this specious reasoning.

The AIDWA said the present judgement goes against the laws on consent and the numerous judgements giving precedence to the victim's statement. By reversing the justice meted out to the victim by the special court judgement, the High Court has written yet another inglorious chapter in injustice to women. The AIDWA has therefore demanded that the Kerala government immediately appeal against this retrograde judgement. (INN)